Why I Will Never Buy Another Winchester

[Beck]

Yeah, it's a shame about the brand name game. Shoots a hole in the whole "Buy American" spin. The old brand names became household words that a lot of us grew up with, and we have tender feelings about them. People play upon our tender feelings, our patriotism, and whatever they can.

I hesitate to buy anything new. These days I'm more in the market for new-old-stock, or safe queens, or lightly used classics from a bygone era. Depending on what it is you may get more mileage from something that was made in 1973 than what will be made in 2023.

About every gun I own can be passed down to my children, and from them to their children. Among other things, firearms are heirlooms in my family tradition. Buy an heirloom! Forget a lot of the new junk!

 

[WestKentucky]

I had a 1300 with a slug barrel. Got it in a trade way back. The box had a warranty card filled out but never sent, and I knew of the guy through a few mutual acquaintances. I passed word to have him call me, hoping to find him with a field barrel he would sell. No such luck, basically same story as told here. I traded that gun away quickly. I liked it well enough and it was silly accurate with low recoil slugs of any flavor. It’s a shame. I was afraid the Colt name would be the same, and Remington as well. So far those have fared better thankfully.

if a slug barrel tickles the fancy, factory slug barrels in my very limited experience were quite nice.

 

[MAKster]

Winchester is just a brand name now not an actual company. I would still buy the SX4 semiauto shotgun. It is basically the same as the Browning Silver and is still a quality product.

 

[entropy]

The Super X 1's are revered as an excellent Trap gun. THE SX2 & 3 are meh, the 4 seems like a pretty good gun.

 

[Speedo66]

One of the brand name fiascos went from a high end, well respected purveyor of top of the line sporting goods, including firearms, to a clothing brand.

Abercrombie & Fitch.

I've got a Winchester 1400 I picked up cheap, but since reading @crestoncowboy stories of their many breakdowns, I keep my fingers crossed every time I use it. Now I know why I got it for a low price.

 

[Rudolph31]

Barrels are available at Numrich.

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/winchester/shotguns-win/1300-win/barrels-win-1300

 

[Slamfire]

I purchased a new Win 1200 (I think that was the model) in the middle 1980's from Walmart. The mechanism unlocked after firing and ejected rounds. I once put my left hand behind the pump handle, to block it opening, and the bolt still opened partially and that pump handle almost crushed my hand. I wrote Winchester Customer Service and they copied a quote from the manual how the mechanism stayed vault tight during ignition.

The bolt had multiple lugs and when the carrier moved back, it unlocked the bolt



Well something was off in my shotgun, either the cocking cams were the wrong shape, or something else, but the "ejected" rounds either fully ejected, but rounds came out of the magazine jamming the gun, or they hung up inside the mechanism causing a jam. And this was something I could not fix.

I am glad Walmart took the thing back and refunded my money. And that was the last Winchester shotgun I purchased. I bought a Mossberg 500 for $88.00 and it is a far better shotgun.



Don't believe the themes found in Winchester ads stressing tradition", "Cowboy's", and "quality". Winchester is just a brand name and has no loyalty to a country, town, factory, tradition or workers. When liabilities become too great the current company will declare bankruptcy, discharge all its debts on society, the oligarchs in charge will make out like bandits, and the owners of weapons built by the last Winchester incarnation will find, the warranty went away in bankruptcy court.

 

[jaguarxk120]

If you research "Winchester" you will find out that it was a shirt manufacturer.
And many of the "Winchester" famous guns were actually designed by
John M. Browning!!

 

[Hokkmike]

Another piece of Americana sailing under a foreign flag! (*sigh*)

 

[D.B. Cooper]

I read all of this, and I think about how many times I've been ridiculed as a gun snob for looking down my nose at any post 1964 Winchester.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

If you research "Winchester" you will find out that it was a shirt manufacturer.
And many of the "Winchester" famous guns were actually designed by
John M. Browning!!

Whoa!

You are glossing over the details.

Yes, Oliver Winchester made his first fortune as a shirt manufacturer, but he invested heavily in the Volcanic Repeating Arms company, run by a couple of fellows named Smith and Wesson. The rifles made by Volcanic were woefully under powered because of the tiny Rocketball ammo they fired. When Smith and Wesson decided to leave and start a new company making revolvers in 1857, Winchester hired B. T. Henry to design a more powerful cartridge and a larger rifle to fire the more powerful 44 Henry rimfire ammo. By this time Winchester had renamed the company to New Haven Arms Company and began producing the Henry rifle in 1862. In 1866 Henry tried to pull a fast one and steal the company from Winchester. Winchester renamed the company after himself, and the company produced the 1866, 1873, and 1876 model rifles, without any help from Browning.

Around 1885 the vice president of the Winchester company heard about a terrific single shot rifle being manufactured by some brothers in Utah. He boarded a train and headed to the tiny town of Ogden, Utah where he bought the rights to John Browning's patent and began producing the rifle as the Model 1885 Single Shot. For almost 20 years, Winchester bought every patent that Browning came up with, many that they had no intention of manufacturing, just to keep the designs out of the hands of competitors. During these years Winchester produced the Model 1885, 1886, 1887, 1890, 1892, and 1894 and 1897, all Browning's designs. Probably a few more too, working from memory now. Browning and Winchester had a falling out around 1898 about the time Browning was finishing his Auto 5 Shotgun. Browning went shopping for a new manufacturer, eventually starting his own company. Winchester did not produce any more Browning designs after that, everything after 1898 was designed by Winchester's in house engineers.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

You didn't buy a Winchester. You bought a Turk. Had a guy come in and order a Win 1873. Fancy wood, color case, octagon barrel. Came in, paid the balance and left. Came back all p'oed. "This thing is made in Japan! Take it back!"
$1800.
We politely refused. He has asked for a gun he pointed out in a catalog and we got it for him. I told him that Winchester was just a name now and none were US made. Japan, Belgium, Portugal and Turkey. He said he was going to scrap it. I offered him $10/pound not to.
Sad but true.

The guy is an idiot. The replica Winchester rifles manufactured in Japan by Miroku are excellent quality.

 

[crestoncowboy]

One of the brand name fiascos went from a high end, well respected purveyor of top of the line sporting goods, including firearms, to a clothing brand.

Abercrombie & Fitch.

I've got a Winchester 1400 I picked up cheap, but since reading @crestoncowboy stories of their many breakdowns, I keep my fingers crossed every time I use it. Now I know why I got it for a low price.

Buy a pack of ejectors and shoot all you want. They are cheap and no problem to replace either. Lol .

Just expect the inevitable.

 

[cfullgraf]

I have my mother’s 20 ga Model 12 from the late 1940’s and a Youth 1300 from the late 1980’s that my daughter has. Both have performed flawlessly over the years.

Things change over time.

 

[hawg]

The 1300 was crap from the get go. I have a model 12 my dad bought new in 1953 and it's never had a problem that I know of. Certainly not since I got it in 2002.

 

[PapaG]

One of my high school trap team members insists on shooting a 1400. We keep an 870 on the rack for his breakdown backup.

 

[Bcwitt]

I had a 1300 back on the day. Was a good gun, but i went with the Remmington 870. Much more aftermarket & factory support.

 

[PapaG]

Way back Winchester franchised trap ranges across the country and stocked them with 1400s. A year later when the reps came around to see what the clubs needed, the responses were: “No more 1400s”.

 

[I6turbo]

Yeah, it's a shame about the brand name game. Shoots a hole in the whole "Buy American" spin. The old brand names became household words that a lot of us grew up with, and we have tender feelings about them. People play upon our tender feelings, our patriotism, and whatever they can.

I hesitate to buy anything new. These days I'm more in the market for new-old-stock, or safe queens, or lightly used classics from a bygone era. Depending on what it is you may get more mileage from something that was made in 1973 than what will be made in 2023.

About every gun I own can be passed down to my children, and from them to their children. Among other things, firearms are heirlooms in my family tradition. Buy an heirloom! Forget a lot of the new junk!

I have an AR-10 that was built in the last 5 years, some CZ guns from about 2000 to 2016 or so (which BTW are built almost identically to the way they were from the '50s to the '70s). Otherwise, most everything I have is from the 1950s to the early 1980s, a few older and a very few newer. If I suddenly lost every gun I have, I'd be looking to replace them with the same, older models. It saddens me to see the cost-cutting, lowest-common-denominator approach to just about everything that's manufactured these days, but other than that it doesn't make much difference to me what the quality of most modern mainstream production guns is. I have minimal interest in them and probably won't be owning any of 'em.

 

[Sniper66]

A real shame that crap CS can destroy an American institution. I have and have had excellent Winchester firearms. I currently shoot sporting clays with a Winchester 101 O/U 20ga. It's a fantastic shotgun, half the cost of it's Browning equivalent, and much better IMO. I grew up shooting my dad's Rem 870 Wingmaster followed by a Winchester 1200. I've never shot better than when I shot those guns. If some of you want to get rid of your Winchester rifles, let me know

 

[D.B. Cooper]

The 1300 was crap from the get go. I have a model 12 my dad bought new in 1953 and it's never had a problem that I know of. Certainly not since I got it in 2002.

There is a reason a Model 12 costs a lot more than any of the 1200, 1300 etc. Wish I could afford one with the short barrel. Guess I could just butcher a duck gun with a hack saw.

 

[crestoncowboy]

I don't think Anyone here is bashing winchester. I have several 12 and 97 shotguns. Several lever action guns, and a few old bolt guns. All excellent guns.

The 1200/1300/1400 were not great from the start and way too many broke too early. They cheapened the gun too much and relied on the name to keep them afloat. It didn't. Now the name is just a marketing act. The design was constantly changed and parts tweaked trying to make it better. A sure sign they knew at the factory it was junk

Luckily parts and parts guns are plentiful and cheap.

 

[DustyGmt]

That's a damn shame. I nearly bought an older winchester 1200 and also a defender like the one you describe but from what I understand winchester ain't one to turn to, at least specifically in the pump action shotgun department.

 

[jmorris]

You're looking at 1 1/2 hours labor @ $112.50 to resolder it, $125.00 to reblue the barrel and return shipping/ins is about $50.00. We are 10-12 weeks out on service work at this time."

These guys have new barrels starting at $139…

https://www.midwestgunworks.com/winchester-sxp/barrels.html

 

[whatnickname]

Cut your losses and move on. Junk is junk. Pay for repairs and what else is going to break?